Up and Back

As expected, there's more than enough loads available in California this week to keep Lori in-state until her doctor appointment Friday morning.

After dropping off a load of Wesson oil at the Sam's Club distribution center in Woodland, CA, Lori was sent 290 miles south to Dinuba in the Central Valley of California to pickup a load of peaches and necatrines headed for Mississippi. She'll take the trailer down to the drop yard in Ontario where another driver will "repower the load" (Prime-speak for delivering a load another driver picked up). From there, there are a couple of possibilities as to what her next load might be.

The fruit packing house in Dinuba (Fruit Patch) has some interesting requirements for drivers picking up loads. They make the drivers stand at the rear of the trailer as soon as they pull into the dock until the trailer is loaded. Lori didn't mind having to stay by the trailer during loading; it was the fact that she had been standing there for over an hour and they still hadn't even started loading that got her a bit steamed. Plus, the refrigerator on the trailer had been running continuously the entire time so the trailer would stay at 37 degrees - burning $5 worth of fuel every hour.

Lori had had about enough of that, so she went to find the dock supervisor and share her frustration. Whatever she said must have worked since her trailer and the one next to her (whose driver had been waiting for TWO hours) got loaded shortly thereafter.

You hate to be pushy, but if a shipper is going to keep drivers from doing paperwork or resting in their bunk because they have to stand by the trailer during loading, then we believe the shipper has an obligation to load those trailers as quickly as possible. The other driver thanked Lori for saying something. Otherwise, he was afraid he might still be waiting!